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Generation Bio Strengthens Leadership Team with Appointment of Will McCarthy as Chief Business Officer and Jennifer Elliott, Ph.D., J.D., as Head of Legal Affairs and Intellectual Property

Published: Apr 09, 2018

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Generation Bio, a company developing the first genetic medicines that can be titrated to effect and re-dosed for a lifetime of benefit, today announced the appointment of Will McCarthy as chief business officer and Jennifer Elliott, Ph.D., J.D., as vice president, head of legal affairs and intellectual property.

“We are delighted to add Will and Jen to our leadership team, and look forward to drawing on their expertise and commitment to patients as we work toward our vision of creating a new generation of people living free of genetic disease,” said Geoff McDonough, M.D., president and chief executive officer of Generation Bio. “Jennifer has extensive experience representing and advising companies at all stages of the biotech life cycle, and Will is an accomplished industry leader with deep strategy, operations and business development expertise.”

Will was previously chief business officer at Ignyta, a company focused on rare, genetically defined cancers. He held this role from 2015 until the acquisition of Ignyta by Roche in 2018. Before that, he was vice president of corporate development at Foundation Medicine and held business development and commercial roles at Halozyme Therapeutics, Biogen Idec and Neurocrine Biosciences. He began his career as a strategy consultant at firms including IMS Health and Deloitte. He obtained a Master of Business Administration from London Business School and a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics from the University of Exeter.

Jennifer served as director, intellectual property at the Broad Institute from 2016-2018. Previously she was the vice president of intellectual property at KindredBio, and spent nearly a decade before that at Genentech in the IP group where she was associate general counsel and director of oncology. Jennifer was an associate at Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP and a technical specialist at Lahive & Cockfield, LLP; at both firms, her practice focused on preparation and prosecution of patent applications and counseling for life sciences and biotechnology companies. She received her Juris Doctor degree from Stanford Law School, and her doctorate in microbiology and molecular genetics from Harvard University. She also received a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology from Williams College.

“In creating the first re-dosable, titratable genetic medicines, Generation Bio is positioned to be a leader in the gene therapy field,” said McCarthy. “I am thrilled at the opportunity to be joining the efforts to deliver this transformative new class of genetic medicines to patients in need.”

“I am excited to join the talented and passionate team at Generation Bio during this important period of growth and progress,” said Elliott. “I look forward to helping to guide the company as it works to realize the tremendous potential of its GeneWave platform.”

About Generation Bio
Generation Bio is a biotechnology company developing a breakthrough class of genetic medicines to enable a new generation of people unaffected by inherited disease. The company’s therapies are based on its proprietary GeneWaveTM technology, which delivers durable, high levels of gene expression and can be re-dosed to titrate to effect and to sustain impact over a lifetime. Generation Bio was founded and launched by Atlas Venture and is headquartered in Cambridge, Mass. For more information, please visit www.generationbio.com or follow @lifetimegenetx.